JET Wife....Family Move

Hi! My husband was accepted into the JET program and he will be leaving at the end of July. I will be joining him with our 18 month old daughter and six week old son, and traveling with my mother. I have the following questions if anyone could please help!

1. Should I buy baby gear...pack and plays, changing table, stroller, car seats in Japan or the U.S.? If so what is shipping from the U.S. to Japan like or how much is the mark-up in Japan?

2. Can I take a double stroller on a flight from U.S. to Japan? We have taken our single stroller on several domestic flights but this is all new to me!

3. Should I purchase baby clothes ahead of time?

4. Any advice on cheap plane tickets? My husband doesn't get his placement information for awhile and we'll only have about a month's advance to buy tickets.

5. Any advice for a stressed out JET wife that needs to learn Japanese!?!

If you don't have any absolute preferences about baby gear, Japan has pretty much anything you'd need, and you wouldn't have to ship it (less to worry about, less to carry, less money). As for baby clothes, same as with the other gear.

I don't know about the stroller... I would think it's not allowed on an international flight, but you should call the airline to be sure. I like STA or HIS for cheap tickets, but it's pretty much going to hurt no matter which company you go with.

Lastly, don't sweat too much about it. moving to a foreign country is already stressful enough, so don't make it any harder on yourself. Concentrate on the moment, and focus on yourself and your family, and have a good time. Try to get the basics down before you go, but you'll pick up so much more after you arrive.

1. How long are you planning to stay? I assume the whole year, but who knows? You said on one hand that you will join him, and on the other hand that you will be traveling with your mom.

As for car seats and strollers, I'd say visit a secondhand or recycle shop here. VERY good inspection of goods before they are resold.

2. Ask your airline.

3. Well, unless you plan to bring your baby naked, yes. The babe will obviously grow, and you can buy anything you want here. It's not deepest, darkest Africa where babies crawl around nude.

4. Sorry. No advice here. You'll have to shop around yourself. This is the negative side of a married person on JET.

5. First advice: relax. Japanese people don't expect foreigners to even have the ability to learn Japanese. Second: they are the most polite people in the world. Third: get a Berlitz book (pocket size) and start learning the basics (please, thank you, where is the XZ?) Learn to read katakana because many items in supermarkets will have such labels, and they are often used for English words. (There is also English on some labels, but don't count on it.) Fourth, as soon as you find out your husband's location here, learn as much as you can about it, and use the links for discussion forums at www.bigdaikon.com just to locate any people in similar situations.

You can rent a baby carriage or a baby bed.
ベビー用品レンタルの目次

Baby clothes,
Please refer to here.
オムツポーチやバッグを出産祝いに名入れプレゼント 【Babinese(ベビニーズ)】


About a hospital,
Please refer to here.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/amdack/english/E-index.html

Strollers will be fine for international flights. Make sure you insist on using them up to the boarding gate and tell at least two different staff at the gate upon departure that you'll need the strollers available at the door upon arrival. Tell the flight attendants too.

BTW those nifty three-wheeler, large-wheeled strollers are excellent for Japan - especially if you're in a rural location where there's a good chance if you want to go for a walk to the local park you'll have to do so exclusively walking on streets.

I've also bought three different child seats when on vacation (one in Canada and two in the UK) and they weren't included in the weight limit of my checked luggage upon return.

I presume that you're going to be travelling separately. Your husband will be off to Tokyo for JET orientation and you'll be left to your own devices to get to your placement location. I think the first priority should be the logistics of getting the four of you and luggage from the airport to your house. If you were coming to my neck of the woods I would offer my services - I've picked up and deposited dozens of JETs and other teachers from Nagoya airport over the years. Once you know where you'll be located perhaps you could contact the relevant block leader to see if someone would be willing to rent a suitably large car and come and pick you up at the airport (at your expense of course).

I would pack relatively light. You'll be arriving at the hottest time of the year so just bring plenty of summer clothes for your children.

Get your husband to bug JET for placement details ASAP. Your situation is way different to the average 22 year-old JET, fresh out of college and still willing to live in abject squalor.


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Bugging JET for anything in advance of coming is a nuisance to them and a waste of time, IMO. They are dealing with 6000 ALTs a year (half of which are newbies). Don't expect any helpful or immediate replies. You are dealing with a government bureaucracy, too. When is the last time your own gov worked speedily?